TV News November 2016

WHEAT:NEWS TV

NOVEMBER 2016 - Vol 3, No.11

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Wheatstone Brought it ‘Home’ at NAB New York

NAB Show attendees in New York were able to knock a few balls around a foosball table at Wheatstone booth 960, where we demonstrated how to mix remote sporting events from a home studio.

Wheatstone showcased real-time remote control and transport of IP audio with a foosball table 'remote' on one side of its booth and a ‘home studio’ on the other, with fiber optic connectivity between the two. “It was either football or foosball — I wanted football, but booth space would have been a real problem! So foosball it is to show how easily we can mix an event remotely using our WheatNet-IP audio network and consoles,” says Wheatstone Director of Sales Jay Tyler.

Our WheatNet-IP is an AES67 compatible IP audio network made up of I/O and specialty BLADEs combining audio mixing, routing, and controlling into one studio environment – whether in one location or in multiple locations.

Among the benefits of WheatNet-IP for remote applications is its ability to serve as an IFB backbone that is routable by simply triggering cross points in the network – with zero latency between talent and crew in the field. “WheatNet-IP audio network BLADEs have utility mixers built in for creating IFB mix-minuses locally at the venue, which means that annoying delay is all but nonexistent,” explains Tyler. "With AES67 time stamping provided in our BLADEs, broadcasters have the option of using it to sync audio and video using compliant equipment."

Even with low bandwidth links, broadcasters can send audio separate from video using codecs while still allowing full control, gain, level, processing, etc.

To demonstrate all this and more at the New York show, Wheatstone collaboratied with Artel Video Systems, provider of innovative IP- and fiber-based media transport solutions, to create a WAN between two Cisco switches. The WAN uses Artel’s InfinityLink IL6000 broadcast media transport chassis equipped with an ILC205 9 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch with VLAN and the ILC103A 3G/HD/SD-SDI, ASI Transmitter/Receiver. “Artel continues to demonstrate the applicability of its product line,” says Rafael Fonseca, Vice President and Director of Product Management at Artel Video Systems. “In this case, the versatility and application ‘reach’ of the InfinityLink platform in support of solutions addressing workflow costs and efficiencies are demonstrated.”

Representing the home studio are Wheatstone IP audio consoles, including large-frame IP-64, Dimension Three Touch, LXE and Series Four control surfaces.

At the ‘remote’ foosball table is a camera, and several microphones interfaced into M4-IP four channel mic processor BLADEs, which provide sound sweetening, mix-minus for IFB and connectivity into the WheatNet-IP audio network.

NAB attendees were able to sit down at the home studio side and punch up mic feeds or change EQ, activate/deactivate microphones, and control other functions at the remote end.

The at-home production workflow is gaining in popularity as a way to reduce production costs and equipment, often reducing what would be a truckful of equipment to only the microphones and cameras needed onsite along with an operations crew.

3 Ways to Disaster Proof Your Studios

We’ve been giving some thought to disaster proofing the studio here at the Wheatstone factory in New Bern, North Carolina, where we’re still feeling the aftereffects of Hurricane Matthew. These made our top-three list.

Use separate electrical circuits. You put in redundant power supplies, redundant computers, redundant everything but you’re running all of that off the same electrical circuit? No. Just no. Separate your operation into zones, and run each zone off separate electrical circuits so if one gets overloaded, the others will keep things humming along.

Add network switches. You can probably get away with one network switch for all your studios if yours is a small operation, but don’t do it. It’s far better to add edge switches to each studio or studio group than to take the chance that that one switch won’t fail and take the entire network down with it. Your network should have a main core Ethernet switch, and at least one edge switch. It’s also a good idea to set up redundant master switches and to cross couple studios to edge switches. In the event of an emergency, you can combine the automation outputs into one feed and route that down the network and out to air. And here’s something else to keep in mind: if it comes down to it, you can always run the station from one I/O BLADE – it has an operating system, I/O, silence sensing, GPIO and mixing inside

Consider two-for-ones. If possible, get gear that can do more than one thing so you’ll have several layers of redundancy to fall back on in an emergency. We’re firm believers in this, as you’ll discover throughout our product lines.

BLADEFEST Redux

This is where we do it all -- engineering, manufacturing, and testing, right here in our New Bern factory! Shown is one of our larger IP audio systems being put to the test. If you look closely, you’ll see more than 20 consoles, at least two dozen talent stations, and a handful of audio processor units networked through 35 I/O access units (BLADEs), including a MADI interface and AES67 connectivity, with routing by four Cisco core switches and more than 20 Cisco peripheral switches.

We fully burn in and test each system we sell – every component, the way every component works with every other component, AND the way it all works with other gear in the customer's studios (via our ACI and, of course, AES67).

Paul Picard Talks About Wheatstone audio networking for television

IABM interviews Paul Picard at NAB 2015. Paul talks about Wheatstone audio networking for television as well as the IP-64 console.

Your IP Question Answered

Q: How does IP audio fit into the at home workflow?

A: It’s what makes it possible to mix remote broadcast events from the home studio. You are able to operate your remote gear directly from your console at the studio as if it were down the hall. From a Wheatstone console in the studio, for example, you’ll be able to control remote mic gain, EQ, and dynamics, plus mute or activate mics out in the field as needed, and save scenes and jump between different remote locations on the fly. You can feed audio to headsets or program anywhere at the remote venue or at home, and sweeten the sound of announcer mics wherever they are. It’s a very flexible workflow.